A standard towel-making machine advances a continuous web of textile goods having relatively long and thick pile zones separated by short transversely throughgoing and relatively thin pile-free zones or strips. The goods are advanced in steps and at each step a section is transversely cut from the leading end, with the cut in the middle of the pile-free strip.
To correctly position the goods in the cutter a device such as described in German patent 3,431,210 (U.S. equivalent patent 4,609,182) is used. It has a pair of holder assemblies each comprising an upper and a lower holddown bar that flank the cutter in the transport direction of the goods and that can be brought into contact with the goods to clamp them and spread them under the cutter, centering the pile-free strip under the cutter. Due to the moderate elasticity of the goods being cut it is impossible to ensure that the pile-free strip will be perfectly centered under the cutter when the means that advances the goods stops each time. Thus the holders are closely juxtaposed with the cutter to start with. As soon as the goods stop, both upper bars are lowered to pinch the pile-free zone against the lower bar and then the holders are moved out-ward, sliding on the goods in the pile-free zone until they encounter the edge of the pile zone, whereupon they can no longer slip so that they stretch the pile-free zone tight between the two holders, perfectly centered under the cutter. The blade then drops or travels transversely across the thus centered zone to make the cut.
Since the goods frequently have relatively thick longitudinal seams, it is necessary that one of the bars of each holder, normally the upper bar, be constructed to accommodate the welt formed by the seam. A rigid bar would not work as the thickened seam would hold it up so that it would not slide to and engage on the edge of the pile zone. Thus each upper bar is formed by a row of finger plates that are limitedly vertically displaceable relative to a rigid mounting bar that itself is displaceable vertically to bring the finger plates into and out of contact with the goods and longitudinally, that is parallel to the workpiece travel direction, to stretch out the pile-free zone and center it under the cutter.
While such a system is relatively effective, it does not work well with all times of fabric. The upper holder bar can jump over the edge of the pile free zone on thinner looped goods.